represented, and immediately with the thought of his glorification came that of the means thereto,—­the cross whose shadow was already darkening his path.  Excepting Gethsemane, no more solemn moment in Jesus’ life is reported for us.  A glimpse is given into the inner currents of his soul, and the storm which tossed them is seen.  It is in marked contrast to the calmness of his controversy with the leaders, and to the gentleness of his commendation of the widow.  The agitation passed almost at once, but it left Jesus in a mood which he had not shown before on that day; in it his own thoughts had their way, and the doctrine of the grain of wheat dying to appear in larger life, of the Son of Man lifted up to draw all men unto him, had utterance, greatly to the perplexity of his hearers.  It seems to have been one of the few times when Jesus spoke for his own soul’s relief.

186.  In all the earlier events of the day the disciples of Jesus appear but little.  He is occupied with others, accepting the challenge of the leaders, and completing his testimony to the truth they refused to hear.  The quieter hours of the later part of the day gave time for further words with his friends.  The comment on the widow’s gift was meant for them, and the uncovering of his own soul when the Greeks sought him was in their presence.  After he had left the temple and the city he gave himself to them more exclusively.  His disciples were perplexed by what they saw and felt, for the temper of the people toward their Master could not be mistaken.  Yet they were sure of him.  The leaders among them, therefore, asked him privately to tell them when the catastrophe should come, to which during the day he had made repeated reference.  The conversation which followed is reported for us in the discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world (Mark xiii. and parallels), in which Jesus taught his disciples to expect trouble in their ministry, as he was meeting trouble in his; and to be ready for complete disappointment of their inherited hopes for the glory of their holy city.  He also taught them to expect that his work would shortly be carried to perfection, and to live in expectancy of his coming to complete all that he was now seeming to leave undone.  This lesson of patience and expectancy is enforced in a group of parables preserved for us in Matthew (chap. xxv.), closing with the remarkable picture of the end of all things when the Master should return in glory as judge of all to make final announcement of the simplicity of God’s requirement of righteousness, as it had been exhibited in the life which by the despite of men was now drawing to its close.